San Diego Noir

Moses shows her his ID card and, not by accident, a picture of his daughter. Most people trust a parent. Leedom always said to use every tool. “I can help you; I’ve caught a lot of bad guys in my time.”

She studies him for a moment and smiles at the photo. “I don’t really know where to start.”

“Why not the basics first? What is it you do, Hope?”

“I was a star, honey. Lotta films in L.A. My name is Hope Love—you never heard of me?”

“I don’t watch much porn, honestly. It gets kinda boring.”

She smiles almost shyly and leans back. “Mama was a hippie, hence the name Hope. I was your average girl from East Texas. Homecoming queen. Class president. Cheerleader. Goooo Panthers! I was at a concert in Austin when this dude approached me. I was a little high, he was a smooth talker. Said I deserved better than hicksville Texas and have I ever considered Los Angeles and making movies? Daddy was a preacher man and thought he could beat the sin out of me. I was just smart enough to know my life was already over and I’d probably marry right out of high school and be fat and drinking myself to death by thirty. It’s not like I was a virgin either. I was on a plane the next day. L.A. was a trip, man. I had never seen so many people. Anyway. It’s always the same story, agents won’t see you, so you get desperate. I agreed to some nude pictures, and it’s not a long slide to doing some freak on camera for four hundred bucks. You figure that’ll set you up for a nice start, until you realize that L.A. is a little bit more expensive than East Texas.”

“You did a lot of movies?” Moses asks, watching some kids run with a kite on the beach. It’s a nice windy day for it.

“Tons. Turns out I had a knack for it. I liked the money and the attention. And the kinkier stuff is where the green is. I made some good bank in a couple years. A ton of features for creepy men. That’s about how long most girls last if you don’t have a major production company behind you. Turns out the smooth guy I met wasn’t a player. I wasn’t fresh anymore. Couldn’t get a deal with the big guys. I looked tired. Everyone had done me. So I started doing gonzo and reality.”

“I’m already lost. Gonzo? Reality?”

“Reality is, like, five minutes of plot. Home video stuff. Straight into the sex. It’s for the freaks. They can watch me sleep with a regular guy as a cheerleader or even a teacher. I was good at it, but gonzo is where the real money is. It’s the crazy stuff.”

Hope pauses to take a bite of her cheesecake and smiles at a little girl running with a puppy on the beach.

“This is wonderful. Anyway, you rationalize it. I can make the rent for the next two months if a couple guys do me at once. Slammed against a wall and punched? Bruises fade and the green makes up for it. Sodomy and rape simulation, you start telling yourself, isn’t that bad. I even did gay-for-pay for a while when people started getting tired of watching me get humiliated. You really never heard of me? That’s kinda sweet.”

They throw their trash away and start walking. The gray is melting away and the sun is peeking through. Hope raises her face to it and smiles.

“L.A. is a rough place. It shows you how ugly it can be, like it’s proud. Here is better.” She stares out into the ocean. “At least San Diego tries to cover up the ugly.”

“How’d you get here?”

“Last year I was preparing to get it on with a midget lady. Hell of a way to turn twenty-eight, huh? That was when I decided to get out. For a laugh I tried to go legit as a sitcom actress, since a couple guys told me I was a good actress and I was dumb enough to believe them. I got beat out by this blond tart, which was literally what the part was, and now it’s the biggest sitcom on TV. I met Teddy at a party and he gave me the same line I got at seventeen, that I could have a better life. And like when I was seventeen, I believed it. We moved to San Diego and it was cool for a while; he did his Internet porn thing and the shoots were actually kinda classy and professional. I was his executive assistant, because I knew the business, and his live-in girlfriend. I loved the city. It’s not like L.A. where you can forget that there’s a beach, it’s everywhere here. It’s the culture. You can actually see the sun. It’s what Texans think of when they imagine California. Like I said, though, San Diego is good at hiding its ugly. Teddy started moving us around a lot, had a bunch of secret phone calls and meetings with creepy men in suits. I heard some things, read his e-mail. I had to get out of there. Teddy’s a respected member of society, gives to charities, has a couple boats, several houses. Lots of powerful friends. Who was I going to turn to for help? I’m just a washed-up fuck star. ”

Hope watches a father chase his squealing child across the sand. Volleyball players run around yelling for others to get the ball. Teenage girls giggle and gossip as they sneak glances at the bronzed surfers heading out into the water.

“I like you, Moses. If I thought you weren’t a good guy, I’d ask if you wanted to be with me tonight.”

He blushes. “Hope, what did you find out about Teddy?”

She turns to him, and she’s all serious now, tears in those amazing butterscotch eyes. “You gotta help me. This is bad. Really, really bad.”

So she tells him everything.

She tells him about Memorial Day.

She tells him about the empty houses with the filthy mattresses.

She tells him about the smuggling.

She tells him about the filmed rapes.

She tells him about the Moving Black Objects.

FOURTH PROTOCOL: EXECUTE WHAT THEY FEAR

It’s Memorial Day at nine a.m. and the sun is shining down and the streets are packed full. Restaurants are at maximum capacity and lifeguards are on edge since so many people are in the water. You pretty much have to sacrifice a virgin to find parking. The perfect weather is why everyone pays such a high price: paradise ain’t cheap. Getting drunk and laid is everyone’s goal, not honoring those who fell in combat. Hardly anyone notices the van pull into a lonely alley and unload a group of Muslim women in burkas and hurry them inside the small red house.